Word
十字路
Meaning in Englishcrossroads
Animated kanji stroke order
Sentence
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Word context
What it means
十字路 means a crossroads or an intersection where two or more streets cross, typically forming a four-way junction; it's used to describe the physical place where routes meet and traffic can go in any direction.
Main meanings
- A four-way intersection where streets cross at right angles
- Figurative sense: a pivotal moment or turning point in life or a project
- Usage in signage and maps; more formal or written contexts often prefer 交差点
How to use it
Used in formal writing, cartography, and traffic discourse; in daily speech, 十字路 is less common than 交差点, and is more likely to appear in maps, place names, or literary contexts; the phrase 人生の十字路 is used metaphorically to denote a crucial decision point.
Variants and close terms
- 交差点 (こうさてん, kousaten) — crossroad, intersection
- 四辻 (よつつじ, yotsutsuji) — four-way intersection
- 丁字路 (ていじろ, teijiro) — T-junction
Composition
- 十 — cross-shaped figure; a central cross used here to convey a crossing point
- 字 — character; contributes the ji sound in the compound
- 路 — road; the semantic core indicating the location is a road
Etymology
juujiro forms the phonetic core of the compound; the on'yomi readings from 十 and 路 align to juu and jiro, and the word was regularized in modern Japanese as juujiro.
Word class
Noun (名詞)
Word
Related words by kanji and components
N1
経路
keiro
course, route, channel
N1
英字
eiji
English letter (character)
N1
回路
kairo
circuit (electric)
N1
海路
kairo
sea route
N1
黒字
kuroji
balance (figure) in the black
N1
赤字
akaji
deficit, go in the red
N1
当て字
ateji
phonetic-equivalent character, substitute character
N2
活字
katsuji
printing type
N2
五十音
gojuuon
the Japanese syllabary
Kanji